BOOK 



MARKET 



BOOKS: 

 Lasting Holiday Gifts 



"ack Frost is 

 nipping at our noses. 

 From houses decked 

 A. \r^> I with holly to the 



familiar carols that 

 ring out in bustling 

 department stores, 

 the holidays are here. 

 For most of 

 us, the abundant 

 Santa Clauses and 

 newspaper ads 

 are reminders of 

 the spirit of 

 giving — and 

 our mile-long 

 shopping lists. 

 If you've 

 put off shop- 

 ping until the last minute, or 

 there are certain family members and friends 

 who already have everything, not to worry. 

 Consider the selection of books about the 

 North Carolina coast — any of which would 

 appease even Blackbeard and his host of 

 pirates. 



Come to think of it, why not wrap one 

 for yourself. That way, when all the shopping 

 is complete, and the weather outside looks 

 frightful, there's time to find a cozy chair and 

 your gift to yourself. 



* Duck: An Outer Banks Village, 



by Judith D. Merrier, published by John F. 

 Blair, Winston-Salem, NC 27103. 259 pages. 

 Hardback, $18.95, IBSN 0-89587-236-6. 



For many beach-goers, thoughts of the 

 coast call up images of sunny shores packed 

 with colorful umbrellas and tourists crowded 

 in expensive resorts. But for Judith Mercier, 



28 HOLIDAY 2002 



By Robin Sutton 



the beach represents much more than quickly 

 built shopping marts, over-priced restaurants 

 and amusement parks. 



In the summer of 1989, Mercier and her 

 family first arrived at Duck. And almost 

 immediately, the small Outer Banks village 

 became a sanctuary for her. 



Within her book, Mercier tells the story 

 of an unforgettable community that dates 

 back to the 17th century. Beginning with tales 

 of early European colonists who struggled 

 with and against the area's brute storms, she 

 tells about one of the area's most lucrative 

 businesses to date. 



Townspeople made a living from the 

 seas' natural and man-made treasures. 

 Wreckage from great ships or the whales that 

 washed ashore were profitable enough for the 

 people to live, but this business, like the 

 sea, was unreliable. 



Through personal narratives and 

 yarns from the locals, Mercier tells how 

 the small town still relies on the sea 

 more than three centuries later. Yet, 

 just as storms have transformed the 

 shape of the island, development has 

 changed the small town that has been 

 the locals' home for years. Every 

 year, swarms of summer tourists far 

 outweigh the natives. 



In Duck, Mercier relates the 

 townspeople's opinions, especially 

 those of the "old-timers" who 

 know that "their Outer Banks 

 village holds no certainties," and 

 that "only change is inevitable. 

 Mercier has captured the story 

 of a transforming small town 

 that attempts to reconcile its 

 past while preserving its future. 



• First to Fly: North Carolina and 

 the Beginnings of Aviation, by 



Thomas C. Parramore, The University of 

 North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC 

 27515. 372 pages. Hardback, $29.95, ISBN 

 0-8078-2676-6. 



For nearly a century, North Carolina has 

 been known for its prowess in the sky. Our 

 state's license plate boasts of Orville and 

 Wilbur Wrights' first powered flight in 1903, 

 but what many of us don't know is that North 

 Carolina's history with flight traces way back 

 to tales of ballooning adventures just outside 

 Winston-Salem in 1789. 



In First to Fly: North Carolina and 

 the Beginnings of Aviation, Thomas C. 

 Parramore has pieced together stories from 

 newspapers, books and magazines, as well as 

 treasured personal family papers, to tell the 

 story of a state 



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